Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is the completion of Olympian Drive consistent with “smart growth” principles and will it contribute to “urban sprawl?” In order to preserve farmland and the rural nature of much of Champaign County community plans have envisioned that the best place for growth is in areas contiguous to existing municipalities. The section of Olympian Drive that has been completed in recent years is contiguous to the City of Champaign and the portion that remains to be completed is all within 1.5 miles or less from the current city limits of the City of Urbana. This type of infrastructure investment will help ensure development occurs adjacent to existing municipalities and not further out where it would be more detrimental to farmland and rural lifestyles.

Because sewer service is as important as roads for the location and timing of new development the City of Urbana and the UC Sanitary District will maintain control of development in this corridor and will require that development occurs in a compact and contiguous fashion.

2. What happens if Olympian Drive is not completed? Growth will occur in and around the metro area, as it has for decades. The most likely outcomes of not following through with the existing transportation and land use plans is that development will simply go elsewhere or it will happen somewhere else in or around the Urbana-Champaign metro area without the proper planning to accommodate it. In the first scenario job opportunities for current and future residents will be lost, in the second scenario the community may lose control of where development occurs and be compelled to invest in public infrastructure that is inconsistent with the decades of planning that has occurred.

3. How was the proposed location of Olympian Drive determined? In 1997 the cities of Urban and Champaign and Champaign County employed Hanson Engineers from Springfield, Illinois to perform a Location Study and Design Report. This study initially identified 10 possible alignments for consideration with a west terminus at Mattis Avenue/I-57 and an east terminus at US 45 (Cunningham Avenue).

Through a lengthy process that considered numerous factors, including cost, natural resource preservation, safety, economic growth projections, impacts to existing properties and broad public input the ten possible alignments were reduced to four then two and then to the single preferred alignment.

4. What are the expected impacts on the environment and agriculture in the area? The environmental and agricultural impacts of Olympian Drive have been evaluated by the state and federal resource agencies, and as result the alignment has been approved and the project has been deemed eligible for federal funding.

5. Does it make sense to use an existing roadway instead of building a new one? The completed Location and Design Study evaluated ten possible alignments, including existing roadways and concluded that there is no existing road that meets the goals of an east-west roadway linking I-57 and US 45 in the most cost effective manner while promoting appropriate economic development that is consistent with decades of planning and minimizing impacts to the environment and agriculture.